Downtown Oakland ballpark plan is a hit with voters, poll shows

Buildings line the Peralta Community College District offices, one of the sites under consideration for a new Oakland Athletics stadium, on Sunday, May 28, 2017, in Oakland, Calif.

Buildings line the Peralta Community College District offices, one...

Oakland voters support a new downtown ballpark next to Laney College by a 2-1 margin, according to a poll to be released Wednesday morning.

The A’s ballpark question was part of the Chamber of Commerce’s annual Pulse of Oakland poll conducted by the FM3 public-opinion research firm. It showed that 62 percent favor the ballpark plan, with 31 percent opposed and 7 percent having no opinion.

The Peralta Community College District site next to the Laney campus is the A’s top pick as well, but the idea has been met with lukewarm support from City Hall, where Mayor Libby Schaaf and others have voiced concerns that a ballpark could wind up displacing renters and small businesses in the area.

The first question posed to the 503 likely voters surveyed was whether they knew about the proposal.

More by Matier & Ross

Eighty-two percent said they had “at least some knowledge of it, and 38 percent said they had a great deal of knowledge,” said Oakland Chamber President Barbara Leslie.

In a second question, voters were asked about their support for the Oakland A’s proposal to build “this 100 percent privately financed stadium at the Peralta site near Interstate 880 — four blocks from BART and walking distance from downtown.”

The wide margin of support, and the small group of undecided respondents, suggests voters know about the plan and already have made up their minds.

“That is interesting,” Leslie said.

The ballpark questions were part of a larger phone poll on issues facing Oakland taken Oct. 24-29, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Pointing fingers: Both UC President JanetNapolitano’s chief of staff and her deputy chief of staff are exiting their jobs this week — just days before the UC Board of Regents was expected to release the results of an independent investigation into allegations that Napolitano’s office interfered with a recent state audit of its spending habits.

“I have not seen the report, and I cannot make any inferences about it,” said UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein, declining further comment.

The $210,000 investigation was prompted by a state audit in April that found Napolitano’s office had squirreled away $175 million in reserves.

As part of the audit, California State Auditor Elaine Howle sent confidential surveys to officials at UC’s 10 campuses, asking them to evaluate services and programs provided by Napolitano’s office.

But Howle said Napolitano’s office improperly previewed the campuses’ responses and in some cases directed changes that resulted in more positive evaluations. Napolitano claimed her staff was responding to campus requests for help and had no improper motive — but nonetheless apologized.

The Board of Regents responded by bringing in former state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and the Orange County law firm of Hueston Hennigan to look into the alleged meddling. The results of their examination are expected to be made public when the regents meet next week in San Francisco.

While the findings are still under wraps, a legislative source in Sacramento tells us investigators are expected to point the finger at Napolitano’s staff for the alleged missteps, including her chief of staff, Seth Grossman, and deputy chief of staff Bernie Jones, who was assigned to collect the reports from the campuses and reportedly threw his weight around.

Grossman, speaking through San Francisco public relations consultant Nathan Ballard, denied any wrongdoing and called the close timing of Grossman’s departure for a similar job in Washington and the release of the regents’ report unfortunate.

“Grossman’s limited involvement was at all times appropriate and 100 percent consistent with the advice of the university’s attorneys,” Ballard said. “If any UC employees did interfere with the audit, it was entirely without Grossman’s consent or approval.”

Jones, who worked for the search firm that brought Napolitano to UC, said in an email that he hadn’t been notified of the report’s pending release and that his departure “fulfills a long-standing commitment to my family to return back east.” Sources tell us he is moving on to another job outside the university system.

Good timing: Thanks to Dreamforce’s big Dreamfest charity concert Tuesday night at AT&T Park, the recovery effort for the Wine Country fire victims will be getting an extra $500,000.

In fact, having the stage set up for the already scheduled party for UCSF Children’s Hospitals at the ballpark, featuring Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz, was one of the main reasons that Thursday night’s Band Together charity concert for North County fire victims was able to come together quickly.

The concert for the fire victims, which will feature Metallica, G-Eazy, Dave Matthews and Dead & Company, was pulled together by a coalition of Bay Area business and community leaders, including Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, tech investor Ron Conway, Giants President Larry Baer, Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson and Another Planet Entertainment chief Gregg Perloff.

“The feeling was, we already have a stage set up, let’s just keep it up for another two days,” said Giants VP Staci Slaughter, who is helping to stage the event.

“The sound, the lights, the video, the ground covering ... is up — all you have to do is bring in the artists and their equipment,” said Matt Prieshoff, Live Nation’s chief of West Coast operations, who is overseeing the setup of the two shows.

“If we didn’t have the first show on Tuesday, all of those would have cost north of $500,000 to install, Prieshoff said.

Instead, the $500,000 will go to the charity chest.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross